Of Lovers, Letters, Foes and Friends
by Princess Crocodile
Summary: Sirius and the Hogwartians struggle to save Snape's life after his encounter with Nagini in book 7. But injuries don't seem to be the only problem they face... Slightly AU for Sirius' lack of deadness. Slash in later chapters. I own nothing
1. First Aid

This is the first story I am actually going to publish here (not least of all because they ask for a title!). I've been working on it for a while and I would very much like to hear what you guys think about it.

The story takes place between the last-but-one chapter and the very last chapter of book seven. It features both Sirius and Severus, but apart from that, I try to stay as close to the canon as possible.  
>Why Sirius is alive is a different story and will not be explained in this one. However, I figured it is wrong that both my favourite characters should be dead and gone, so I revived them.<p>

Since I filed it under romance, you probably guessed that this story is slashy, but you wouldn't know from the first three, maybe four chapters, because, let's face it, Sirius and Severus have a lot to overcome.

I rated the story M because things are going to get sweaty in later chapters, there's also blood and stuff and I just wanted to be safe.

Please do review if you can find the time! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated. I don't even have a beta yet, so if anybody is interested, please pm me!

Now, let's do this.

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><p>Of Lovers, Letters, Foes and Friends<p>

Chapter 1

So this was it. It was all over. The horrors had finally stopped.

Yet somehow, it felt as though some of the horrors had not even begun to take effect.  
>Sirius kneeled besides Remus' dead body, gently stroking the stony white face.<p>

He quickly wiped his eyes as he heard hurried steps approaching. Ron was running towards him, two brooms in his hands.

"What are you…" Sirius made to ask,

but Ron immediately cut him off.

"No time to explain, I don't know any details, but we need to apparate, Harry needs help!" and with that, he handed one of the brooms to Sirius, who didn't hesitate a second, swung one leg over it and shot off into the air, aiming towards Hogsmeade, quickly followed by Ron. Within minutes, they were behind the gates of the school grounds and landed. Ron grabbed him firmly and said,

"Grimmauld Place 12!" which was Sirius's cue to apparate.  
>Ron let go of him on the threshold of Grimmauld place 12, where they stumbled through the door as soon as they had stopped spinning. Immediately, they spotted Harry.<p>

„Harry- what the hell is going on?" gasped Sirius, as he became aware of what Harry and Hermione were doing. Apparently, they were carrying the slouched figure of a lifeless Snape towards the stairs.

"Quick, Sirius- he's still breathing!" answered Harry, and continued to place a locomotor charm on Snape, who slowly floated up the first floor of stairs, while Sirius stared after them, stumped.

"What is this supposed to mean?" he asked Hermione, who had pulled a book out of her robe, which she searched agitatedly.

"Listen, Sirius, you have to trust Harry now. Snape is innocent, he was on our side all along, but he was bitten by Voldemort's snake hours ago. He's still breathing, and we think he could be saved, but we can't take him to Saint Mungo's until his name has been cleared, and Madame Pomfrey is dead, as is pretty much everyone else we could think of, so you are the only one left capable to fix him. Please, push your bias away for a second and just trust us!"

Sirius took a look at her, and the expression on his face changed from bewildered to determined.

"All right. Hermione, get me the big suitcase marked 'fragile' from Regulus's old Room! Ron, you get some hot water and towels. This might get nasty."  
>He took the book out of Hermione's trembling hands and found the right page within moments. Then he rushed upstairs after Harry, who had laid Snape onto his bed and was currently ridding him of his torn garments with trembling fingers, but let go to try and explain when he heard his Godfather enter. Sirius interrupted his blubber: "Shhh. It's okay, I trust you. Let me see." He stepped to the bed, pushing Harry aside gently and bared Snape's chest with one flick of his wand.<br>It was a ghastly sight. Dark, crusted blood was everywhere, the skin hung down in shreds and smithereens, bones were poking through, the pale skin seemed to be fluorescing greenly and looked burnt around the ragged edges of the wounds.

Sirius slumped for a second, but Harry's terrified gasp made him spring back into action.

"Harry, get 'fighting the fatal' from the library, don't search for it, summon it!" he barked, before leaning down to examine the wounds more closely.

Hermione arrived at the door panting, trying to fit the enormous suitcase through the door without crashing it against the frame. Finally, she just enlarged the doorway magically before scurrying inside, and Sirius tapped the suitcase, so it sprang open and revealed its thousands of drawers, a little cauldron and an already lit fire in a jar. He jammed the book in the book holder and continued to read out the ingredients, causing various drawers to spring open. Then he advised Hermione on how to prepare the ingredients while he grabbed a bottle of skele gro. He mended the broken ribs and shoulder blades, spoke a simple pain-relieving charm and went on to use the towels and hot water that Ron had just brought to try and reassemble Snape's chest. Even after all he had been through, Sirius still had to fight back a gag when a loose string of muscle slid through his fingers as he tried to settle it back into place. Hermione whimpered quietly, but obeyed as Sirius ordered her to hand him a bottle each of essence of dittany and fibre fuse. Harry shot into the room carrying a small and very dusty book. Sirius looked up at him and asked, "Are you absolutely sure that this was just Nagini, nothing else?"

"Yes, I saw her do it!"

"That's something, I guess. Search the index for an antidote to Irisea poison."

Harry did so with shaking hands and then showed his godfather the page he found. Sirius read it quickly and told Ron and Harry to prepare the ingredients to this potion, as well. After that, he continued to point his wand at the tears in Snape's flesh and murmured incantations while carefully glazing the spots with drops of Fibre Fuse and Dittany. The flesh gave a sizzling sound and a little smoke evaded at the gaping skin's attempts to grow back together. But the blood wouldn't stop flowing, and soon the mattress was soaked through and the blood started dripping to the floor.

"How are those ingredients coming?" Sirius asked Hermione with gritted teeth.

"Almost done!" she said in a slightly hysteric voice, and Sirius carefully wrapped bandages around Snape's torso, compressing the wounds while he saw to the potion-making.

He and Hermione worked well together, and an hour later, all they could do was wait as both potions were simmering.

"Now," Sighed Sirius, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, "Ron and Hermione, you go ask Arthur for the name of the healer that treated him at Saint Mungo's when he was bitten by Nagini. Then you'll go to Saint Mungo's, find that person and bring them here. Stun them if necessary, we really need a professional. All we are doing here so far is give Snape a blood building potion and clean and try to heal some of the minor wounds, because all the traditional remedies I tried aren't working too well. I'd say I'm a little out of my league here. See you later! And please, do hurry!"

Ron and Hermione left the room and Sirius waited until he heard the door close downstairs before he turned to Harry. "All right. Now explain."

And explain Harry did. Sirius let him talk first, then asked a few questions, reluctant at first to let go of his conviction that Snape was evil. But finally, he nodded.

"Fine. Snape and I shall never be friends, there's just too much bitterness between us after all these years. But after what he did for you- for all of us- I guess I'm done fighting him."

Harry stared at him with wet eyes. He felt the exact same thing, he couldn't find it in himself to like Snape the way he felt he should after all the sacrifices Snape had made for Harry's sake, but the white hot ball of anger that used to roll around in his stomach every time he thought of Snape had vanished to make room for gratefulness, respect, even admiration at so much courage.

'And maybe a little spark of amity', said a voice in the back of his mind that Harry ignored.

Sirius checked the cauldron once more and finally told Harry to prepare a feeding cup, because: "It's ready."

It was hard to get the potion into Snape's mouth, since the jaws were clenched tightly. Almost one third of the first cup spilled down his chin and chest. When none of the muscle relaxing spells would work, Sirius took Snape's ashen face in his hands and massaged the muscles until eventually, Snape's mouth fell open. They continued to empty two more cups of potion into the potion master's throat, and colour slowly started flooding back into the mangled face.

"Look, he's getting better!" Harry breathed, but Sirius was sceptic:

"I'm afraid that doesn't mean anything. We are just fighting the effects of the injuries, not healing the intoxication. That's what the second potion is supposed to do. But I don't know whether it is strong enough after all these hours."  
>"But it might still work, right?" Harry asked anxiously.<p>

"We'll just have to try, it's our best option. Help me lift him up a little, but be careful. I haven't been able to seal those wounds, so they're still open."

They sat Snape up against the pillows, which seemed to help with the blood circulation, but also soaked the bandages with a surge of fresh blood. Sirius cursed, removed the bandages and dabbed the wounds with hot wet towels again. Finally, thick, silvery smoke filled the room: the second potion was ready.

Carefully, Sirius took out a curious looking instrument from one of the drawers in his portable potions-brewery and sucked some potion into its nozzle by twisting it slightly between his fingers. Then he held the instrument near Snape's torn flesh and the wounds seemed to suck the liquid from it as needed. Upon contact with the flesh, the Potion changed its consistency: first it appeared to become vapour and hovered over the tears in Snape's torso. Then it sunk in, steaming a little. Harry gasped as he watched the flesh turn rosy again where it had been burnt and black. Sirius treated the last of the injuries, and finally, they looked at clean, fresh looking wounds instead of burnt holes and the bleeding had been reduced a lot. With a sigh, Sirius put down the strange pipette-type instrument and ran his fingers through his hair. "That's all we can do for now."

But he got distracted when Snape started stirring a little. Which was a good thing, supposedly. But the movement disturbed the wounds and caused the blood to come gushing out in streams again.

Sirius cursed under his breath and bent over Snape.

"We have to get him to wake up- or fall back to sleep again." He slapped Snape's face softly. "Snape! Snape! Wake up!" more stirring, but the lids remained shut. "Snape! …Severus!" Another slap, slightly harder. Snape's lids fluttered a little.

"Come on, Snape! You need to wake up." Sirius said urgently. And Snape opened his eyes. When he realised who sat at his side, he tried to sit up, but Sirius held him down without an effort.

"Stop fidgeting! You're injured. This is not a joke, it is vital that you remain absolutely still. You lost a lot of blood."

Snape tried to speak, but only soft cough came out, along with a little blood.

"The cup, quick!" said Sirius, and when Harry had handed it to him, he tried to feed Snape some more of the potion. Snape shook his head and tried to shuffle away from Sirius, but was held him in place firmly. "Look, Snape, we're all you've got now, no use fighting us. Voldemort's snake attacked you, and you're very badly wounded." Snape stared at him for a second, then allowed him to feed him some potion.

"The dark Lord…" Snape managed to get out, before his voice broke and he coughed blood again, while Sirius tried to hold his torso as still as possible.  
>"Dead. We finished him, along with all the Horcruxes, and then I went to find you." Said Harry, moving into Snape's field of vision.<p>

"Potter- alive?" Snape wheezed, and if Harry wasn't much mistaken, Snape seemed assuaged. "Yes, Harry is alive. A lot of people died though. A lot of young people, as well."

Snape closed his eyes, his breathing became more forced.

"Anyway, you should rest, you have a lot of healing to do, and we can't help you an awful lot with that as long as the healer isn't here."

Snape flung his eyes back open.

"Healer? From Saint Mungo's?", he panted, not coughing this time.  
>"I said, relax!" barked Sirius harshly, and forced Snape down onto the cushions again. "We're hardly going to try and save you just so they can ship you off to Azkaban now, are we?"<p>

Snape shot him a look which told Harry that under normal circumstances, a banter would have ensued. Sirius must have noticed, too, but he seemed to be serious about not wishing to fight Snape any more, because all he said was:

"Maybe you know what to do, you're the potions master, after all. Do you have any idea what we could do? You're losing a lot of blood."

Snape let out a ragged sigh, then tried to sit up again, immediately being held down by Sirius. "Snape, I swear to god!", he shouted, then calmed himself forcefully and continued, "Listen, no one is trying to harm you, but you need to lie still!" Snape shot him a scathing look and forced out between gritted teeth:

"I will have to _see_ the wounds to estimate the damage and think of an appropriate healing strategy."

Apparently, even if in mortal peril Snape, would make absolutely sure he didn't miss an opportunity to sound superior. So Sirius carefully lifted the potions master's body up, Harry stuffed a pillow behind his back, and Snape sank back into it with a stifled groan. Then he looked down at his chest, eyes widening in shock. "Wha- how am I still alive? What have you done?"

"We gave you an antidote to Irisea, the one from 'fighting the fatal' and a blood building potion. Apart from that I tried Fibre Fuse and Dittany, but apparently, something in the Irisea poison keeps the wounds from healing."

Snape stared at him with a searching look in his eyes. "How long have I been here?" he asked. Sirius looked at Harry, who shrugged. He checked the grandfather clock in the corner of the room and said, mildly surprised:

"A little more than eight hours."

Snape closed his eyes again and let his head sink back against the pillows. "whatever you did to relieve the pain, undo it. I have to know how bad the injuries really are."  
>Harry and Sirius looked at each other, but when Harry said, "But Sir…", Snape hissed:<p>

"I've worked with the dark Lord for over two decades, I can take my fair share of pain. I always could, as your dear godfather very well knows, Potter."

Sirius's glared at him and spat, "Fine."

He pointed his wand at the Potions Master's heaving chest, then slightly flicked it. The result was frightening, to say the least. An animalistic sound escaped Snapes mouth, his eyes rolled back in their sockets, and after one last rear that sent blood spattering everywhere, he fell back, chest horribly still for lack of breathing.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted, "Do something!"

But Sirius hardly needed prompting. He pointed his wand at the Potion Master's chest again and hissed,

"Renervate!", then quickly continued to take the pain away. After a few moments, Snape's breathing returned, ragged at first, then slowly became steady again. Harry, who had been clutching his own face, finally relaxed.

"Do you think that did any… damage?" he asked Sirius in a trembling voice. Sirius looked at him sympathetically and said in a dark voice,

"I can't say. I'm guessing not, since pain alone can't harm you, really."

"But Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom…" "I doubt that this is comparable. They were tortured for days on end, accompanied by threats and humiliation which may cause any mind to hide behind insanity. Snape on the other hand knew what was coming, and told me to do it. Although I doubt he realised how bad his injuries really were."

Harry nodded. "shouldn't we… you know, give him something?"

"Not much we can give him now, Harry. We have to wait for him to wake up again. Although a little more of the blood builder might be a good idea." Harry handed him the cup and Sirius fed the lifeless figure carefully. Harry marvelled at the change in his Godfather's behaviour towards his former enemy- he was careful, almost gentle with him.

They emptied a fair amount of the thick potion into Snape's mouth, and again, it seemed to take immediate effect, as Snape's hollow cheeks were tinted with a hint of colour, which encouraged Sirius to give the antidote another try as well. But this time, Snape didn't wake up; he just stirred for a second but kept breathing deeply. With an exasperated sigh, Harry put down the cup he had been holding.

Sirius looked up at him and said, "It's late, Harry. You might want to get some rest."

"I'm not tired" said Harry immediately, but couldn't suppress an enormous yawn. Sirius chuckled, and Harry smiled.

"I guess I am tired. Are you coming, too?"

"Nah, I'll stay here, see if he wakes up."

"But no fighting!" said Harry, in a stern voice that sounded a lot like Hermione's. "Yes, Ma'am." Growled Sirius, and with another smile, Harry left the room. But Sirius, too, was exhausted. So when Ron and Hermione finally arrived, they fond him sitting slouched in his chair, chin sunken to his chest, still holding his wand.

"Sirius?" Hermione asked, and shrieked as Sirius sprang to his feet, pointing his wand at her. When he realised what was going on, Sirius put his arm down looking a little embarrassed and muttered, "What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on prison-escapees like that!"

Ron made to argue, but Hermione said,

"Sorry Padfoot. Look, we searched everywhere, but the healers in the poison-department of Saint Mungo's are all gone, and there's hardly anyone there at all since some of them have gone into hiding outside of England after Voldemort started recruiting again, and the rest are busy at Hogwarts, trying to rescue as many as possible!"

Sirius sighed. "I figured as much, to be honest. But we had to try. Snape is stable for now it seems, he was awake and lucid before, but he insisted on sampling the pain I had taken from him in order to estimate his injuries, and now he's been out for hours again. Fine, go to bed, you two. You must be exhausted." And though Hermione looked as though she still had a million questions, she didn't protest when Ron towed her out of the room and upstairs.

Sirius couldn't go back to sleep, though. He lunged in the big comfy chair, trying to find a position that suited him, but his thoughts kept racing. Everything that had happened during the days before came back to his mind, and whenever he finally closed his eyes, he saw the still, white face of Remus before them

After a while, he simply gave up, got up and got all the books on potions and healing he could find in the enormous Black library. Then he sat down by the fireside and started flicking through the pages, folding down a page every once in a while when he found something that might be useful one day, but nothing came even close to relating to their situation. The night went by, morning came and went. Around noon, Harry, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs, and Sirius got up to summon Kreacher back from Hogwarts, were he was sent to help, and told him to fix them something to eat, making sure before he left the room that Snape was still evenly breathing and in neither pain nor distress.

During lunch, Harry was coerced by the others to fill them in on some of the details they still hadn't quite understood, and slowly, the mood changed somewhat, becoming more hopeful.

When they had finished, Sirius told Harry, Hermione and Ron to look after Snape for a while and to send Kreacher to come and find him if something changed, for he had business to attend to.

* * *

><p>So I'll let you guys cliff hang there a little until I've edited the second chapter sufficiently, which hopefully won't take too long.<p>

I can promise, however, that things are going to get a lot more interesting soon.  
>As I said, please review, it means a lot. If anybody even got this far reading my story.<br>Right, I'll just hit "save" now, before I chicken out again.

Cheers!


	2. Hunters and Gatherers

Chapter 2

Sirius was not at all surprised to find that several anti-intruder-charms lay on Spinner's End, but after years on the run and in hiding, even the blackest one of them was a piece of cake for him to handle, and within less than half an hour, the door opened, creaking an invitation. It was obvious that no one had been living here for a while, a thick layer of dust lay on every surface and the air smelled stale.

Sirius didn't waste any time looking around, but, after casting a quick locating spell, followed his Patronus through a secret door in the tapestry into a dark cabinet. When he lit up his wand, his gaze fell on several high shelves full of potion ingredients and an enormous array of expensive looking books. It took him little time to understand the system in which they were organised, and soon he had found what he was looking for. He piled up the dusty volumes, minimized them and put them in a pocket in his coat. Then he left, dutifully restoring the anti-intruder-charms he had lifted earlier.

Back at home, he heard voices trailing down the stairs from the guest bedroom in the first floor where he had accommodated Snape. Apparently, they hadn't heard him come back, because he could hear them talking about him.

"Anyway, I'm not sure I trust Sirius alone with Snape. I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't do anything that might hurt him while he's that sick, but as soon as he gets better and starts arguing-"

"You're being unfair, Hermione! He has been really great when we needed him yesterday, and as soon as I had explained to him what Snape has been doing all those years, he said he wouldn't argue with Snape anymore!"

"Well, yeah, that's what he said, but…"

"Are you implying he's lying to me?" Harry asked furiously.

"Well, no, Harry, of course not, but you know how those two are! Remember our fifth year? Even when they try to be civil around each other, they end up shouting at each other!"

"Well I for one am not going to fall back into old habits." Said Sirius sharply as he entered the room. His three young friends jumped up from the floor where they had laid sprawled and Hermione hastily started to explain, "Sirius! I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"  
>"Whatever you meant, I'm fully capable of behaving myself if I think it's necessary, which I do at the moment, and once Snape has gathered his strength again, he's not bloody likely to stick around anyway, is he?"<p>

"I'm sorry, it's just-"  
>"Never mind that now. Help me look through those books I just stole. Anyone finds anything related to Cobra Draconis, Irisea, wound sealing inhibitors and the sort, speak up. Until then: quiet time."<p>

Sirius gave the potions he had made so far one more try, and it seemed that Snape's wounds cleaned up in a way when he used them, but he still couldn't get them to grow back together. So he had to content himself with giving Snape the blood building potion once more and applying fresh bandages. Then he sat down on the floor with the others and started reading.

"Here's something, I think!" Ron said, and the others all looked up, intrigued.

"Cobras come in various degrees of lethality, the most dangerous one being the cobra inferna, which is usually found-"

"Cut to the chase, Ron!" Hermione chipped in.

"Well, it goes on for a while about Cobra Inferna… but look, here. Cobra Draconis, predatory beast… loves the dark and cool… enhanced night vision… maximum length, blahblah… here. Fangs are acutely poisonous. Effects of intoxication -getting closer now!- are prevention of wound healing, loss of primary haemostasis, whatever that is, along with sclerosis and scorched flesh…" Ron fell silent.

"SO? Keep reading!", howled Harry and Sirius in unison.

"I'm sorry. Article stops here. There aren't any remedies listed.", Ron replied crestfallenly.

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. They quietly returned to their books, and Ron angrily threw his into a corner before picking up another.

Kreacher brought up sandwiches in the late afternoon which they ate in silence, deeply immersed in their books. When Hermione squeaked, "HERE!", Ron choked on a piece of sandwich, and Harry had to get up and pat his back before Hermione could elaborate.

"It's a potion against cursed wounds with scorched and sclerotic edges…"  
>"Yes, exactly, what do we need?" Sirius urged.<p>

Hermione didn't say anything but simply handed him the book. He scanned the page and his enthusiasm quickly faded.

"What is it?" Harry and Ron asked, irritated to be left out. Sirius handed the book over to them and stood up, pacing the room.

Harry started reading and understood what the others were on about immediately. The list of ingredients was incredibly long, it went on for almost three pages, and the description on how to prepare them went on for many, many pages after that. This was by far the most complicated potion Harry had ever heard of, and by the looks of him, Sirius felt the same.

"Where on earth are we going to get all this stuff? Dragon heart string? Rasps of Putchock… Thestral hoof… Tentacle of a giant squid... Human Eye! This is ridiculous." Ron said with an exasperated sigh.

"I'm afraid those aren't even the ones that are the most difficult to find.", Sirius muttered.

"Sirius?" asked Hermione shyly, unsure whether he was still mad at her.

"What is it?" he asked, absentmindedly, but never stopped pacing.

"Wouldn't Snape… have had an extensive collection of ingredients at home?"

"Yes, but some of those ingredients are not only rare and, of course, illegal, but almost impossible to find, and the rest of them is very exotic as well.. Putchock for example is a plant, but almost extinct, so you do the math."

"But Sirius… we have to try! You know that!" Harry said urgently.

"I know, Harry. Well, I guess that leaves us no choice. We split up. Kreacher will stay here to baby-sit Snape, Ron and Hermione are going to Hogwarts, see if the dungeons are still intact and check Snape's and Slughorn's personal storage cupboard if they are. See if you happen to find that healer if you're there, as well! Harry, you come with me. We break into Snape's house again and visit Slughorn's old mansion afterwards. You guys take this," he conjured up a replica of the page in the potions book, "And get everything from the list you can find, better two of each than none. We meet here as soon as we are finished. Now hurry!"

Ron and Hermione hurried downstairs and out of the house to apparate to Hogsmeade, and as soon as Sirius had instructed Kreacher to come find him if anything changed with Snape, he and Harry left as well.

This time around, Spinners End lacked the air of silence and abandonment Sirius had noticed earlier, and he had a feeling that he was not the only one to have tried breaking into Snape's house today. He was sure he had recast each and every one of the spells Snape had put on his house after he had left it only a few hours earlier, yet there was definitely evidence for an attempted break in. No obvious signs, of course, but small details, like the feel of the force field, the ragged edges of the repelling charm, the inconsistent distribution of magical energy along with a few more details that he couldn't quite put a finger on.

He considered getting Harry home and to safety first, but decided against it considering no one had actually managed to get in and besides, he had no time to lose.

So he lifted the anti-intruder charms again, which didn't take as long as it had the last time since he knew exactly which ones had been cast and where. Then he opened the door and led Harry inside. While Sirius headed straight to the hidden cabinet, Harry was awestruck by all the magical items in Snape's house, and Sirius finally just lifted the anti-summoning charm Snape had put on his precious ingredients and accioed and packed the ingredients on his own, while Harry stayed back in the sitting room to glare, fascinated.

"I'm done, Harry, thank you for your help!" said Sirius, but he winked at Harry while he said it, and Harry grinned guiltily, following his godfather outside.

"Snape has some really awesome stuff in there!" he breathed, while Sirius put the Anti-intruder charms back in place.

"I'm sure he does, Harry, but he have to get moving. Although I found quite a few useful ingredients here, there are a whole lot of things missing, so we're headed to Slughorn's now."

He restored the protective charms on the house once more, then stepped back, held his arm out to Harry and they apparated again. This time, they landed in the shadow of a tall sycamore tree on a fairly neglected lawn.

"This is where Slughorn lives?" Harry gasped, staring at the villa before him.

"Used to be, before he fled from the deatheaters. You remember he likes his luxuries?"

"Well yes, but- wow. Anyway, how did you know where to find it?"

"I used to be a Slughorn favourite once, too, you know" Sirius grinned and walked towards the door, face strained, as if trying to hear something.

"What are you..?

"Shhh!" Sirius took a step towards the door, hands outstretched before him, eyes closed.

Finally, he took his wand out, mumbled something and immediately, the lights inside the house went on and the door swung open.

"Awesome." Harry grinned, and followed his smirking godfather into the Mansion, expecting more exciting magic utensils, but was disappointed to find an entrance hall that might as well have been taken out of a Muggle movie. A great Hollywood movie with a ridiculous budget no less, but still, he was a little crestfallen.

"So. Where'd you reckon his lab would be?", Harry asked, determined to be of help this time.

"Dunno, let's find out, shall we?" Sirius sent his Patronus out to guide them, and they followed it through the hall into the kitchen and from there to what would have been the garage in a Muggle house. Slughorn had apparently put an extension charm on it, it was two stories high at least, and there was an entire library upstairs. A giant storage cabinet took up half of the downstairs. Sirius got to work summoning the remaining items while Harry packed and them. But he noticed that more often than not, Sirius would summon something and nothing happened.

"So what do we do about all the missing ingredients?", he asked, as soon as they were through.

"First of all, we'll go home to check with Ron and Hermione, who knows what they've found. Snape's collection there was extensive, and Slughorn may have added several things that I was surprised not to find in his personal storage cabinet."

When they got home, Ron and Hermione weren't there yet, so Harry started preparing the ingredients following the instructions Sirius gave him while Sirius himself tended to Snape once more, changing the bandages, instilling some more of the blood builder and such. Harry turned around when he heard Sirius curse under his breath.

"What is it?", he asked alarmedly.

"Nothing. Bleeding got worse again. And there's close to nothing I can do about it."

Sirius tried the remedies he had used before once more, but the effect was even less significant than the first times.

"We better make this potion work…", he mumbled, and they both continued to work even more determinedly, until eventually, they ran out of things to do.

"I hope everything's okay over at Hogwarts…" Sirius mumbled, eyes fixed on the clock.

"Well… the Death Eaters are mostly dead, and the remaining ones fled from the Aurors days ago. You don't think Ron and Hermione would be in trouble, do you?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure, Harry, they've been forever, and at the very least, there's still the creatures from the forbidden forest. I'm not sure whether the charm keeping them inside the borders of the forest is still intact… I think we better go look for them." They rose to their feet and Sirius made to summon Kreacher, when they heard the front door opening and closing, Hermione giggling in a rather non-Hermione-ish way, as well as footsteps approaching.

Finally, Ron and Hermione appeared in the door, slightly out of breath. Ron, whose ears were a violent shade of pink, sported a dopey grin.

"Oh come on. Seriously?" Harry shouted suddenly, by way of a greeting.

"What the-" Sirius started but was interrupted by Harry, who was apparently really mad.

"You do realise that Snape might be dying here! That we might be his only chance! If you don't want to help then say so and don't go wasting our time! This is ridiculous, what were you thinking?"

Finally, Sirius caught up with him, and shot Ron and Hermione an appraising glance, before squeezing Harry's shoulder and murmuring, "There now, no need to shout. Get back to the ingredients."

Hermione looked thoroughly embarrassed and handed Sirius the bag with the ingredients without looking at him.

Ron, however, glared at Harry. "Listen, mate, it's not like we didn't do everything you told us, the entire time. It's just, now that it's over, we just wanted a few-"

"While Snape lies here, dying!" Harry shouted, voice trembling with anger. "Don't you think _I _would like some peace and quiet, too? I haven't seen Ginny for more than a few hours in months, and we have a hell of a lot to make up for, yet you don't see me abandoning anyone just so I could get some!"

"Hey, watch it, that's my sister you're talking about!" Ron glared back at Harry furiously.

Hermione started to say, "Harry, we're sorry, It's not that we don't want to help, we just-"

"Don't you apologize!" shouted Ron, agitated. "Where does he come off making us out to be the bad guys when all we did-"

"Enough!"

Sirius hadn't shouted, but the harshness in his voice made them all flinch.

"We have no time to lose, least of all by arguing. Ron and Hermione, there's some floo powder on the kitchen mantelpiece, go to the Burrow, I'm sure your mother will be glad to see you, Ron, and you, Hermione, could surely use the break as well. End of discussion."

Ron spun around on his heels and stormed outside, towing an unhappy looking Hermione behind him.

"Sirius. We could really have used their help." Harry said accusingly.

"Don't worry, Harry. We'll manage. Scratch the ingredients from the list when I call them, will you?" Harry hesistated.

"Look, Harry. You remember what happened last time when Ron was in this kind of mood, don't you? It just doesn't make any sense to argue with him now, and I didn't want a distracted Hermione messing up any of the ingredients, either. Besides. I like working with you most, anyway. You seem to understand what I want from you much quicker than the other two. Beats me why you haven't gotten an outstanding in potions in your OWLs. All right, now. Grindelow warts."

Ron and Hermione had been rather successful, and when Sirius had emptied the whole bag, only six more ingredients were left.

"I knew they wouldn't find squid tentacle." Harry murmured. "So what now?"

"One more option. Diagon Alley. Was hoping to skip that one, though. You don't happen to have your invisibility cloak, do you?"

"Always." Harry grinned and nestled the tightly rolled cloak out of the extension charmed moleskin pouch he was used to wear around his neck at all times and threw it over his shoulders.

"How very wise of you. That's all right then, I guess. People just wouldn't leave you alone if you were striding down Diagon Alley in plain sight these days. And I'll just…" he tapped his face, turning his hair and beard grey, his nose long and knobbly, his eyes wrinkly, his skin yellowish and sickly looking, then gave himself a slight hunch.

"Good?" he asked, wiggling his now wild, grey eyebrows at a spot a little left from invisible Harry, who snickered. Sirius called Kreacher and, for the umpteenth time, asked him to sit with Snape. They left the house again, Harry gripped Sirius's arm and they disapparated.

The Leaky Cauldron was averagely frequented, not crowded, but not devoid of life either, so Harry and Sirius were able to pass through without standing out.

Diagon Alley itself however was rather empty, still every other shop was closed and barred. They quickly made their way to the Apothecary's, but when Sirius, still disguised as a ugly old man, asked the batty saleslady for the ingredients, she just squinted at him suspiciously and said: "Very powerful dark magic you're dabbling with, there. What do you need these items for?"

"Never you mind that. Do you have any of the things on my list?"

She considered him for a long minute, then waved at one of the top drawers in the endlessly high shelves behind her, and when it opened, a little brown package came flying down.

"The Squid you can have. It's gonna cost you, though."

Sirius paid without flinching, which seemed to make the saleslady even more nervous. When they left the shop, they could hear her locking the door behind them.

"People are still scared… Anyway. One down, still several more to go." Sirius sighed.

"and where are we going to get them?" Harry asked, worried.

"Well… since you're invisible and I am unrecognisable, we might as well make a detour to Knockturn Alley. Dark Magic and the supplies can usually be found there."

"What else do we still need?" Harry asked, unable to recall the items although he had read the parchment a dozen times.


	3. Breaking and Entering

Hello there!  
>First: thank you guys for reading, story alerting and favoriting! Makes me smile everytime I get an email.<br>I uploaded two short chapters instead of one long chapter this time, I just felt like putting them together wouldn't work because the styles sort of clash. Chapter 3 is rather experimental, I'm not big on humour and adventure and the sort. Help me get better by telling me what I've dne wrong?  
>Anyway, here we go:<p>

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><p>Chapter 3 (Breaking and Entering)<p>

"Are you quite sure this is the best way?" Sirius asked Harry when they stood in the deserted public bathroom.

"Don't worry, I've done this before, remember?", Harry answered and purposefully stepped into the bowl, which was a lot more difficult if you couldn't see your own feet; he was under his cloak again.

"It's just… these boots are brand new." Said Sirius, before stepping into the bowl and flushing, directly followed by Harry.

"you can't tell now of course, but if you could see them… top notch. Dragon skin and all. Had them hand made." Sirius had dug up Moody's old Invisibility cloak and performed a very impressive disillusionment charm on himself. Both combined still wasn't nearly as good as Harry's disguise, but still an improvement from just plain visible.

"They're Italian. Much better shoemakers over there. Nicer leather, too."

They were on the elevator. As of now, no obstacles.

"I used to know a good address in London, too. Fled two years ago, though. Pity."

"Would you stop going on about shoes? You're like… a girl!"

Sirius chuckled. "All right then, no more shoes. Except: you really should consider an alternative to those trainers you insist on wearing. The old pump up and run just doesn't say cool anymore."

Harry let out an exasperated sigh, yet had to laugh at the same time, resulting in a very awkward snotty snort-grunt.

"Easy now. I doubt they'd gain much if they were boger-coloured.", Sirius teased, causing Harry to laugh even louder, while at the same time he tried to be quiet and listen for guards, until finally he simply stuck his fist into his mouth.

"Wait. We should get off in the sixth floor, just to make sure. I do believe they have anti-intruder-alert-charms on their elevators on the seventh floor. They probably-"

"HICCUP" Harry was so startled by his own singultus, he started laughing again.

Sirius considered the laughing patch of air next to him for a second, then sighed.

"To think that this is the boy who took down Voldemort and all those evil minions. Breaks into the Ministry of Magic and comes down with a case of the hiccups. Or wait- maybe that's the Ministry's secret weapon against Intruders! Hiccups! Gee, I Tremble at the thought of what else they might have in stock for us. Tickling jinxes?"

Harry did his very best, but it really was like he was jinxed- he could hardly stop laughing, let alone stop hiccupping. Finally, Sirius pulled him out of the elevator and into the dark and deserted staircase.

Under all the haze of giggling and hiccupping, Harry still wondered. Was that what his godfather had been like before Azkaban? All flippancy and jokes? Sure, he had always been there for Harry in every way he could. He knew stuff, magic even, that most other wizards didn't. Hell, he'd known an answer to every one of Harry's problems so far. But he had always been kind of sinister and broody below the surface. Right now he was downright … jolly.

"Anyway, Mr. Criminal Mastermind, I was saying, we're going to have to walk the last flight of stairs, because there will be intruder alerts, and the elevator doesn't allow us to approach slowly and take action. Still, you might want to stay back a little and concentrate on seven naked Veelas or whatever gets some blood out of your over-agitated lungs, because I need to concentrate, understood?"

Harry nodded, then remembered his invisibility and said, "understo-" Hiccup "-ed!"

"Remind me to teach you about creative visualisation when we get home!", Sirius sighed.

They had almost reached the seventh floor. Sirius signalled Harry to stop by squeezing his shoulder, stepped a little closer still and started doing his little spell-detecting moves that had so impressed Harry at Slughorn's. After a while, he started mumbling and shooting sparks and smoke from his wand. Harry stood at the banister a few steps down, concentrating hard not to hiccup (too loudly), when suddenly, he heard something.

Urgently, he hissed "Siri-" hiccup, "-us!" Sirius sighed as the vapour he was conjuring fell limply to the ground and dissolved.

"Now what did I just ask you to-"

"Listen!" Harry managed to force out, without any hiccups this time.

And that was why Sirius was better than other adults: instead of arguing, he listened. And then he heard it, too: steps were approaching up the stairs.

"Stay here, close to the wall, don't go anywhere near that door!"

Harry chose this moment to fail to suppress a hiccup, and immediately slapped both hands before his mouth in horror.

"Oh, right", murmured Sirius, "desiste!" and just like that, the hiccup was gone.

Harry was too anxious to be annoyed with Sirius for not putting him out of his misery any sooner, because the steps had paused at the noise of Harry's hiccup, and then picked up the pace.

Harry was amazed at how soundless Sirius must have moved, because suddenly, at the bottom of the stairs one floor below, the steps stopped. Then there were a few uncertain steps. And then, miraculously, the steps were retreating. Harry didn't dare relax until he heard a door open and snap closed again firmly, several floors below.

"Sirius?" he whispered, alarmed.

"Booh!" Said Sirius, so close to his ear that Harry jumped a little, landing on Sirius's foot.

"Are. You. Nuts!" Hissed Harry, suddenly not anxious at all and very ready to be annoyed with Sirius for being reckless.

"What? You know startling people helps getting rid of the hiccups! Did I mention I am very fond of these shoes? Italian, Harry! No stepping on them, please."

"would you be quiet now?"

"Keep your knickers on, Harry. I cast the Muffliato."

"Still. I don't like the idea of Imperiusing any more guards! Would you try and be… serious!"

"I am Sirius. Seriously! Besides, I didn't Imperius him. Just made him forget what he heard and remember he wants to write an owl to his wife, immediately. No Unforgivables from me, and maybe you shouldn't do them any more, either. Just saying, greater good is no longer an issue. Especially since our mission is aimed at saving the greater evil."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle, which just reminded him of the hiccup incident. So he carefully aimed and stepped on Sirius's shoe again.

"Whoops, so sorry, Sirius. Seriously! Now get back to work."

It still took Sirius quite a while to do whatever he was doing and Harry began feeling a little bored. Finally, the door sprung open, Sirius lit up his wand and said, "There we are. Let's go."

"There now. This is the Committee on Experimental Charms… And here we are now. Experimental Potions. If they don't have it here, then I give up." Sirius did his mumbling and fathoming again, but unsettlingly soon just opened the door.

"Careless… somebody might get in and steal stuff!" Sirius complained, stepped through the door, checking for magic again, then pulled Harry in, too. "All right, I probably can't lift the summoning block in here, because it surely is a little more powerful than just one wizard. So we have to search. The eternal fire would be fairly easy to recognise, it's a big metal bowl filled with floating fire that changes colour depending on its size. Don't take it, just find it, it's twenty kinds of dangerous. Liquid Stone will be in a stone bassinet somewhere, probably in a very special spot since it is one of the greater accomplishments of the wizarding world. Again, no touching. In fact- don't touch anything, at all. Seriously."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Seriously. That is a stupid word, by the way."

Harry grinned and went looking for Eternal Fire and Liquid Stone.

After a fair few minutes of wandering along the endless shelves of mysterious bowls and bottles, he saw a light shining from behind something that looked a lot like one of the satin partitions and screens that Professor Trelawney had used to decorate her classroom. He stepped around it and was instantly blinded. He hastily turned around and got behind the partition again. Now the blinding light was almost completely subdued. _Definitely a different kind of partition_, Harry thought and went to look for Sirius.

He saw something flicker just a few rows of shelves down and put out his own wand to see whether it really was Sirius he was creeping up on, not a guard. When he was quite sure and after careful calculation, Harry stepped on Sirius's foot again. Within a split second, he lay flat on the floor, an invisible force holding his arms wrestled behind his back. "OW! Sirius! I'm sorry, Italian, I know." Sirius let out a relieved sigh. "Harry! Sorry. Didn't mean to- well, perhaps I did, but not that hard."

"I found the fire."

"Great, I've already gotten the metal, so let's collect the sodden sparks and then get the hell out of here. This place kind of gives me the creeps."

"Are you afraid of the dark? Seriously?" Harry mocked.

"No, but I died here, once. Seriously." Sirius said dryly, which shut Harry up. Until Sirius said "And, of course, I miss my nightie light." Harry pinched him playfully, smiling. That was exactly what he meant. Never serious, not for a second.

They collected the sodden sparks and then got the hell out of there.

"By the way, Sirius- How did you know how to break into the Ministry?" Harry asked when they appeared on the threshold of Grimmauld Place 12.

"Didn't I ever tell you? I designed the security system. Fun as it was there, I still had a life before Azkaban, you know?"

"Wow." Harry was deeply impressed. But then he remembered something: "Ummm… wouldn't they have changed the security system after you were locked up in Azkaban?"

"Nah. The bloke who asked me to do it was supposed to do it himself, but didn't have the qualification nor the imagination to do so. Probably feared for his job and didn't tell anyone. 'Sides, I slipped in a few neat little tricks that make it fairly hard to change. I'm a naughty one, you know."

Harry laughed, then asked, "So what did you do before Azkaban, if you haven't been a professional… Ministry… Safemaker?"

Sirius grinned back at him and answered, "some other time, Harry. We have more important things to do now than reminiscing."


	4. Stirring and Fretting

Chapter 4 (Stirring and Fretting)

Preparing the Potion was a tedious, nerve-wreckingly difficult task, and they were both drenched in sweat halfway through. Yet their motivation lay right behind their backs, breathing unevenly. The bandages had been thoroughly soaked through when they had returned, and Kreacher had been on the verge of coming after them when they had entered the room.  
>"Done!" Harry said, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, "Anything else I can do?" "No, you can go to sleep if you-"<br>"Sirius! I'm not going to bed now, couldn't sleep either way. I want to see what happens."  
>"Very well, put the little silver Kettle on the hook in the fireplace, we need a proper fire for this potion. Then you can add the content of the biggest glass bowl, very, very slowly, while stirring clockwise continuously."<br>Harry did as he was told while Sirius mumbled things and did stuff with the Eternal Fire and the Liquid Stone.  
>"What now?" Harry asked, turning around.<br>"Now you keep stirring until I tell you to stop." Sirius mumbled and continued with his incantations. After what seemed like an hour to Harry, Sirius finally brought over the next bowl and added its content to the cauldron, then the next, then the next. When all the ingredients except for the fire and the metal were properly diffused, Sirius sighed and leaned back against the wall, before slowly sagging down on the floor.  
>"What's wrong, Padfoot?" Harry asked nervously, wondering whether any of the ingredients might be poisonous.<br>But Sirius looked up at him distractedly, shrugged and said, "Huh. Not sure I should say."  
>"You can tell me anything, Sirius, you know that.!"<br>"Is that so? Well then. I'm not sure whether this is going to work. I've never worked with either of the next two ingredients, and it's very powerful black magic, I'm telling you this much. Powerful enough that, in case this goes wrong, it could easily kill Snape. And although you may be generous enough to trust me that I don't want to harm him anymore- well, not badly anyway- most people won't believe that, considering our history. So if he should die, after all those efforts, I'd probably have to go into hiding again."  
>"I don't think that's true, Sirius. You know, when Hermione was saying that earlier, she meant stuff like, you two were going to argue, and agitation might not be good for his health. She'd never believe you would actually do something to hurt him, and neither would anyone else. Besides, I'm your witness. Anyway, if anything should happen, we'll know we did our best to save him and that has to be enough. To think, the chosen one and his daredevil godfather broke into the Ministry to steal potion ingredients… Snape would say it's fitting. That I never learned to obey to rules."<br>Sirius grinned a little, then got off the floor and said, "Alright then. Nothing left to do but…"  
>He went to get the Eternal Fire and Liquid Stone from the little worktop they had set up in the corner of the room, carefully let it slide into the cauldron and started muttering incantations.<p>

Harry thought it was best to step back and let his godfather work in silence, so he sat down in Sirius's dusty armchair and watched.  
>He woke up with a start when his head slipped from the headrest. Guiltily, he looked to Sirius, who was still busy with the cauldron. A strange light was radiating from it now, and the room was filled with a sweetish scent that made Harry dizzy. A quick glance at the clock told him that Sirius had been working for almost three hours while he had been asleep. But Sirius seemed very absorbed by his task, so Harry refrained from talking to him and apologizing or offering help. Instead, he looked at Snape, who was looking very pale and fragile. His skin colour was even less healthy than usual, beads of sweat stood on his forehead and dark circles under his eyes were strangely at odds with the fact that Snape had not been awake for so long now. Harry wiped the potion master's face with a moist cloth, then picked up a book and sat down in his chair again. Nothing he could do now. He buried himself in his book and didn't look up again, until finally, Sirius called for him.<br>"Harry! It's time. Take off Snape's bandages, and then get me a goblet and make sure it's cold!"  
>Harry bared Snape's chest and rid it of the bandages, then cleaned and freeze-charmed the goblet before bringing it over to Sirius, who filled a little amount into the goblet.<br>"That's all? All this work for this little gulp of potion?" Harry asked, surprised.  
>"Hardly. The rest of it is going… into his wounds. You can step out of the room for the duration of the process, if you wish."<p>

Harry shuddered, yet wanted to stay with Sirius. The goblet was empty soon enough, but afterwards, the rest of the potion had to be administered. The pipette came out of its Drawer again, and Harry assisted Sirius in some uneasiness as he carefully pulled open the wounds and let the potion dribble inside, watching it mix with the dark, fresh blood that still flowed from the wounds. With horror, Harry watched the liquids combine and form a thick, bubbling mass that moved around in Snape's wounds until finally it started to… boil, apparently. Smoke ascended over the wounds, and within seconds, Snape was out of sight in a cocoon of smoke and vapour. Harry unconsciously gripped Sirius's arm, and couldn't hold in a scream when Snape's body started moving, no, spasming. Sirius gripped him around the chest, for Harry had made to throw himself at the spectacle in front of him, determined to help.  
>"You can't do anything for him now, Harry. All we can do is wait.", Sirius told him in a hard voice. And in that moment, Harry was glad he had sent Hermione and Ron away, because even he found Sirius menacing then. He was just standing there, stony-faced, muscles tense, staring at the twitching body before him with an icy glare.<br>They watched tensely for what Harry felt must be hours before finally, the vapour vanished, the jerking stopped and Snape's pale body lay before them lifelessly. "Sirius, what happened? Is he… is he dead?" Harry asked hysterically.  
>Sirius however had already pointed his wand at Snape and shouted "Renervate!". A big flash of light shot directly into Snape's chest and again, he took a deep breath and continued to breathe steadily after that.<br>Sirius took Snape's wrist in his hand: "Right, he's breathing again. Be quiet, I'm concentrating." He pulled out an old pocket watch and took Snape's pulse.  
>"He's fine. Well, not worse than before, anyway. Ironically, the one person I would ask for help now is Snape himself. Can't do that now, can we. Guess we'll have to wait and see. His wounds look loads better now, anyway." Sirius muttered as if talking to himself.<br>Harry stepped closer to the bed and bent over a little, closely examining the Potion Master. It was true, the wounds looked as if they had been sealed somehow, they were no longer gaping and there was no bleeding, either. And if Harry wasn't much mistaken, Snape's face had changed, too. Harry gave Sirius a little smie and said, "I think it may have worked, though. He seems different from earlier, like he's dreaming. He doesn't look as… as stressed as before."  
>"Let's hope you're right. Anyway, He's going to be out for a while. Since you can't really do anything to help him in case he wakes up, I guess you can just as well go to bed now. Better yet, go over to the Weasleys, allow Molly and Ginny to see you're all right, then maybe talk it out with your friends. I know it bothers you. Don't be unfair to them, though. Keep in mind that you're the Chosen One, Harry. Somewhere along the way you just lost all your selfish impulses, which weren't very strong to begin with. Not true for others, you understand. Anyway. I'll stay here with Snape."<br>"But what if he-"  
>"I think he's out of any immediate danger for now. I'll let you know if anything changes."<br>Harry sighed, then nodded. "Thanks for everything, Padfoot. You have been brilliant. It may sound strange, but after all he has done for me, I just couldn't bear it if he... you know."  
>"I know. I understand."<br>"Yeah. Well, Goodnight, Sirius. Hope you can get some sleep." Harry went for the door.  
>"'Night, Harry." Sirius mumbled, feeling suddenly very tired himself, then sat back and rested his head in the big winged chair.<p>

He fell asleep soon, yet woke up repeatedly, each time Snape's breathing changed its pace. _To think I used to be a dead sleeper, I can't believe I lost that. And over Snape, no less! Come to think of it, I can't even take offence at that anymore, not after…"_his thoughts trailed off, and he fell back asleep.

Harry came out of the fireplace at the burrow, covered in grime. Arthur jumped up from his armchair and pulled Harry into a bone-crushing hug, regardless of the grime rubbing off on him. Then he let Harry go, saying, "Finally. The others told me you were okay, but you know, us old folks. Always worried." Harry squeezed Arthur's hand firmly, and gave him a heartfelt smile. No one would ever understand exactly how much the Weasleys meant to him. "Molly has already gone to bed, I bet she's still awake though. I'll tell her you're here. You best go to bed, now, too, as will I. Ron's Room is kind of… Occupied, I guess. Percy's old room is empty now though. But there's also a spare bunk bed in Ginny's room, I don't know how things are between you now. Yet from that face I guess I do. Up you go then. I'll turn out the fire." And after a light squeeze of Harry's shoulder, Arthur turned towards the fire. Harry sprinted upstairs as silently as he could, performed a quick cleaning spell on himself before knocking and entering. Ginny was fast asleep, hair fanned out on the pillow, breathing deep and evenly. He shrugged out of his trousers, socks and Jumper, then carefully slid under the covers behind her, brushing her hair aside and hugging her close. Her sweet scent almost overwhelmed him as he nuzzled his nose into the back of her neck, and within seconds, he was asleep, too.


	5. Diplomacy and Dislike

I'm sorry I took so long! I just didn't have a lot of free time for almost a month now.

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

Diplomacy and Dislike

When Sirius woke up, the sun was already up. He could have gone on sleeping for hours still, but a noise had woken him. There it was again: a cough, rather faint. Sirius sprang to his feet and rushed to the bed. Snape's eyes were closed, but twitched.

"Are you awake? Can you hear me?" Sirius asked quietly, remembering how Snape had reacted to seeing him the first time he had woken up.

"Water", Snape forced out hoarsely, before starting to cough again.

Sirius filled a glass, helped Snape sit up a little and held it to his lips. Snape swallowed, and it seemed to be an enormous effort, but he still drank until the glass was empty.

"Are you in any pain?" Sirius asked, pulling back the covers to reveal Snape's naked chest and taking off one of the bandages to see what had happened over night.

"No." Snape croaked, "Where are the others?"

"At home, asleep. Don't worry. Your wounds look infinitely better. The potion seems to have worked."

"Let me see." Snape wheezed, and struggled to sit up.

"Shhh, don't move! Let me." Sirius put one arm under the pillow that Snape's head was rested on, and carefully lifted him into a semi-sitting position.

"There. No blood in the bandages. Which is just as well, since I'm running out of ingredients for the blood building potion. Your body is probably exhausted though, took a lot out of you last night. I actually had to revive you."

Snape's head stopped struggling to be upright, and Sirius took it as a signal to carefully let him sink down into the pillows again before asking:

"Is there anything I can do to give you strength?"

"There's… a potion…" Snape coughed again, and Sirius gave him water without waiting for asking this time. _A potion, of course_, Sirius thought, _It's never something simple, like a spell!_ After having drunk, Snape continued to speak.

"A potion. Can be found in Stilter's Potent Potions, if you have that. In Kettle Stirrer's Manual, too. Look for Vis Viri. You probably don't have the ingredients at hand, though."

Sirius summoned the books and showed the recipes to Snape, who shook his head at the first volume, then shrugged weakly at the second.

"Both very much out of date. Write down what I tell you, and pay attention to the details, this is rather more complicated than you are probably used to."

Sirius frowned, but bit back an angry retort and did as he was told in silence.

The list of ingredients was very long, and while most of them were hidden in the obligingly opening drawers of Sirius's potions suitcase, Snape had been right. Several were missing. None of them were particularly rare or expensive though, so Sirius tore off a piece of parchment, listed the missing ingredients and added a short note. Then he tapped the parchment twice with his wand and murmured, "Harry Potter". The thin lines of black ink began glowing bright red before the parchment caught fire and Sirius threw it to the ground where he put it out with his boot. Then he continued to write down Snape's instructions.

When he finished, Snape started asking questions about how everything had ended. So while preparing the ingredients for the potion, Sirius told him all about how Harry had gone down to the forest, his return to the living and the ownership of the wand twist.

At last, Snape sighed and nodded slowly. In an infinitely slow and tired gesture, he raised his left arm to look at the dark mark on it. It was barely more than a shadow now.

Sirius averted his eyes. Something in the expression in the slim, sallow face made him feel deeply uncomfortable, almost anxious.

A little over an hour later when he was still preparing the rest of the ingredients, the fire in the fireplace turned green, and the swirling figure of Harry stepped out of it, struggling to keep balance.

"Harry!" Sirius gave his godson a bear hug before asking: "Is everything all right with you? And the Weasleys?"

"Yeah, fine. Took me a while to convince them to let me leave again. But I managed. Chosen one and stuff." He winked. Sirius chuckled, then took the bag Harry offered him.

"How are you feeling, Professor?", Harry asked Snape, stepping to his bedside.

"Not quite well yet, but the potion should help. If it is brewed correctly, that is."

Harry quickly glanced back over his shoulder to see whether Sirius was offended by Snape apparently questioning his competence, but he just shrugged and said, "I'm doing exactly what you told me, so you'll have to blame yourself if things don't work out, won't you."

Snape scoffed, and Harry quickly asked, "Is there anything else _I_ can do, Professor Snape?"

"Stop calling me Professor for one. I haven't been a Professor for over a year now." Snape murmured bitterly, but he seemed to be talking to himself rather than to Harry, so Harry turned to Sirius.

"If you don't need me for anything, either, I'll just head back to the Weasley's. Molly asked me to tell you to come to dinner tonight at eight. There are things to be discussed. Some of the rest of the order are coming, too. I mean- only if you can be spared here, of course."

"I assure you, he can easily be spared." Snape said in a cold voice.

Instead of snapping back, Sirius just gave Harry a weary smile and said, shrugging again: "You heard it, I can easily be spared. I guess I might have Kreacher keep watch tonight, so maybe I'll stop by."

"They'll be very happy to see you. See you later, then!" Harry squeezed Sirius for a second, but was held back when he wanted to turn toward the fireplace.

"Harry James Potter. Is that a hickey on your neck?" Sirius asked, grinning broadly.

Harry grinned back in spite of himself, and went to hug his godfather again, telling him without words how happy he was. Sirius hugged him back, tousling his hair a little, then gently freed himself and said, "Right. Better be off, now. Maybe you can squeeze in some of the good stuff before dinner." Harry flushed a little and turned towards Snape: "Bye, Professor, I will come back here tomorrow."  
>"Please, I wouldn't want to be the reason why you would waste time away from the very important task you've just been given." Snape answered, voice thick with sarcasm.<p>

Harry stared at him for a moment, then shrugged, waved at Sirius, stepped into the fireplace and was gone.

"You might want to lay off the boy. He saved your life, you know. If you have a problem with me, that's fine, but leave Harry out of it." Sirius said casually while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Snape frowned, but didn't retort.

Another two hours later, Sirius had the potion ready. _I am really getting into a routine_, he thought, before asking: "Goblet or pipette?"

He didn't get an answer, so he turned around to see Snape glowering at him, through eyes that were narrowed to slits.

"Should I rephrase my question, was it too complicated?", Sirius asked pointedly.

"You must love this. Seeing me all weak and defenceless..." Snape spat by way of a response.

"You know…", Sirius replied in a calm voice, "You'd think I would. But as I said before, I have decided to put the past behind me after everything I've heard about your part in matters. So no, I don't love it. Besides, I haven't really been born to nurse or babysit grown men."

Snape made to answer but Sirius cut him off by asking loudly: "So: goblet or pipette?"

"Goblet.", Snape spat, attempting and failing to sit up on his own. Sirius saw this, put down the goblet he was filling, patiently sat Snape up against the headboard and then returned to filling the potion into the goblet.

Snape drank down everything in one big gulp, coughed a few times, then shoved Sirius away. Sirius clenched his hands to fists and was about to lose his temper after all, but the easily two meter long flame that shot out of Snape's open mouth, filling the air where he had just been standing, appeased him with Snape's rude demeanour.

"Interesting. Was that supposed to happen?", Sirius asked, extinguishing the flames with his wand and offering Snape water.

Snape drank it, looking exhausted and shrugged.

"It's not too unsettling. The volcano ash must have been too sulfury. Didn't expect Potter to get everything right, he was never one for details. Much too hot-headed and self-centred."

"He was good enough to save the entire wizarding world, including you." Sirius growled. He might be able to restrain himself enough not to fall back into his old habit of teasing Snape, and so far, he had managed to keep his temper through all the little provocations Snape had dished, but he certainly was not prepared to listen to Snape badmouthing Harry.

Snape remained silent, eyes fixed on Sirius.

A few moments went by before Sirius asked in a deliberately casual voice, "What next? Are you going to be okay? And are you likely to spew flames again? How often will you need to take the potion?"

"Unless you substitute the sulfury volcano ash for clean one, then yes, I probably am going to. And the potion needs to be taken once every four hours. Apart from that, I shall be fine. So bearing in mind that we all wish for a speedy recovery, it might be best if you leave now."

"Are you sure?" Sirius asked, a tad worried. He didn't know why exactly, but he had a bad feeling about leaving. Probably something to do with the recent flame-thrower-ness of Snape.

"Quite. But then again, I have only been Potions Master for fifteen years, so I might not be qualified to forecast the effects of the potion I had you brew.", Snape replied with a generous amount of sarcasm in his voice.

"Very well, suit yourself. Kreacher!"

With a loud crack, the house elf Kreacher appeared, shooting Snape a suspicious glance before bowing deeply to Sirius and asking: "Master called?"

"Yes. I have to ask you to sit here with Snape for a few hours, make sure he has everything he needs. And if he seems to be doing worse, come and get me at the burrow. Can you do that?" Sirius asked, making an effort to keep any bitterness or anger out of his voice.

"Yes Master. Kreacher will do as he is told.", Kreacher assured and took a bow again, without any swearing or muttering. Hermione might have been right about the elf after all.

"All right. Snape, you know the drill, send Kreacher if you need anything, and Kreacher, er- thanks. See you in a few hours."

He left the room and went to change clothes for the evening.

"Have a nice evening, Master" Kreacher called after him, deeply unsettling Sirius.

Snape, however, remained silent.

Sirius arrived early at the Weasleys', so he had ample time to sit down and talk to Professor McGonagall about Snape's condition, the political situation and the proceedings of rebuilding Hogwarts. He agreed to take part in the rebuilding as soon as Snape didn't take up all of his time any more, although he hadn't been working in wizarding construction since he had gotten his first inheritance all those years ago. "You might even be able to work on the blueprints together, once Severus has made a full recovery." Minerva suggested. Sirius just smiled and left it at that. He wasn't going to get into the details of how things were going at Grimmauld place; not right before dinner.

Dinner itself was pleasant enough. Minerva stayed, and some of the other teachers came bustling into the kitchen in time with Mr. Weasley and a few Minisrty colleagues.

It was a cheerful meal with llots of talking and toasting and laughing, but Sirius was so tired, he could hardly enjoy all the delicious food Mrs Weasley had prepared and only spoke when he was asked a direct question. When dinner was over and they retreated into the sitting room, Sirius fell asleep in an armchair within a minute after sitting down, and did not stir once in spite of the noise around him.

"He looks positively exhausted!" Hermione said worriedly to Harry, who had noticed as well. "Snape hasn't been sleeping through the night because of his pain, so neither has Sirius, because he never left his side. I do wish Snape would get better already. It's been days!" Harry sighed.

"Now, don't forget what his body has been through. He endured the poisoning for hours and hours! Just think back to how long Ron's father took to heal, and his injuries weren't half as bad as Snape's. The poison wasn't even in his system for very long!"

"Still, it was quite bad enough!" Ron snapped at her.

"I know, Ron, I'm sorry, of course it was horrible. I'm just saying, Snape is really badly hurt. Did you see the size of the tears in his flesh? I guess something in the poison makes them grow bigger with time." Hermione said shuddering.

"Let's not think about that anymore. Sirius really did an amazing job, considering he's not even a healer. Now all we have to do is wait while Snape heals." Ron said, leaning back comfortably. Harry still looked worried.

"Sometimes I worry that Sirius won't hold up his calm façade for long. Snape isn't exactly making things easy, he kept provoking him while I was there. Sirius didn't respond to any of it, but I'm telling you, _I_ certainly wouldn't manage for long."

"mind you- There's quite a difference between forgiving someone you have hated for seven years before finding out the truth and forgiving him after 25 years of hatred." Rona said wisely, to which Harry nodded.

"I guess... I'm really proud of Sirius. Who knew he had it in him?" Hermione smiled fondly, watching Sirius, who was snoring a little now.

"Do you think we should put him upstairs to sleep properly for once? He hasn't left Snape's side since he arrived at Grimmauld place, and never really slept except for in that horrible chair." She asked, slightly concerned.

"I reckon he could have Bill's old room." Ron offered.

"He's probably just going to leave as soon as he wakes up, best let him sleep." Harry said, then smiled suddenly. "Strange though, isn't it? The idea of Snape and Sirius in the same room, not at each other's throats. Guess war's really over."

Sirius's sleep didn't last long after that, anyway. With a loud crack that reverberated through the entire house, Kreacher appeared in the sitting room, effectively waking up Sirius.

"What's wrong, Kreacher?", Sirius asked alarmedly.

"Master tells Kreacher to come get him if he is needed. Master's guest is making to leave and Kreacher thinks Master wants to stop him."

"WHAT! Yes, thanks, Kreacher, I'll check on him now."

With but a short wave to all the puzzled faces staring after him, Sirius left for the back door and as soon as he was outside, he disapparated.

As he landed on the curb of Grimmauld Place 12, he was working hard to keep his anger down, forcing himself to remain as calm as possible while he felt his blood boiling. He spotted Snape as soon as he had entered the hall. He was leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs, more than exhausted by the effort of getting out of bed and getting dressed.

"What the sodding hell do you think you're doing?" gasped Sirius, hurrying up the stairs and catching Snape by the arms the very moment he was about to fall over from inanition.

If Snape was trying to answer, he was unsuccessful, a few wheezes escaped him before he slumped and Sirius had to support most of his bodyweight, lest he fall down.

"I guess this spares me the lecture." Sirius grumbled, but couldn't help adding: "Really, Snape. You should know better. I've heard people calling you clever and such."

But he let it go when he caught a glimpse of the expression on Snape's face.

"Anyway, time for your potion in a few minutes. I'll just leave you alone for a minute while I slip into something a little less… flammable."

And he helped Snape get into bed again, flicked his wand to dress him in his pyjamas, even draped the covers over Snape's shivering frame before leaving the room.

He got changed at record speed for fear of another escape attempt and was downstairs with Snape again immediately after.

"Alright. Do you feel up to using the goblet, or shall I…" his voice trailed off when he became aware of Snape's murderous glare. "Goblet it is, then."

When he went to help Snape sit up, he could almost physically feel the loathing that pulsated from Snape. Frowning, he still did what had to be done, but kept silent and left the room immediately after he was done, instructing Kreacher to stay with Snape for a little longer while he went upstairs into his room for some more sleep. But it took him quite a while to fall asleep, his mind kept spinning towards the problem of how to handle Snape from now on, seeing as he seemed to hate Sirius just as ardently as back in their Hogwarts days, if not more. And on top of that, he would have to explain to Snape his situation in the wizarding world, outside the safety that Grimmauld place provided. No, sleep didn't come easy to Sirius that night.

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><p>So, there we are now, trouble obviously right ahead, as always.<br>I hope you liked it, and I'm optimistic about how soon I will update.

Your opinions and constructive criticism are always very welcome!

(and if someone on here is a beta in disguisewho would consider helping me out, the whole thing would move forward a lot more quickly... anyone interested?)


	6. Compassion and Composure

Thank you to everyone who is still with me after this ridiculously long pause in my updates. I'm not really sure why, but I have had a million gos at this chapter and it never turned out right. So what I'm doing now is just give up and give you my latest draft instead of making you wait for something that may never come.

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: Compassion and Composure<p>

Snape grew a lot stronger within the next day and even stronger after that.

Sirius meanwhile tried to leave him alone as much as possible, doing his best to time check-ups during Snape's sleep so they would have to spend as little time as possible together, not only because, as he told himself, he wanted to give Snape space in order to avoid an explosion, but just as much because of the way he sometimes almost physically reacted to Snape's icy stares. Sirius was not sure how much of it he was imagining, but the room seemed darker even than during his last stay at Grimmauld Place, and gloom and cold seemed to be emanating from it as soon as he opened the door. Snape made no effort to hide his contempt, glaring or frowning at Sirius whenever he entered the room. He did, however, remain silent except for sarcastic retorts in response to any questions or remarks from Sirius.

When Harry visited Sirius a few days after their dinner at the Weasleys, he found him in a dark mood, pacing up and down the living room.

After greeting Sirius carefully, Harry asked: "So… How are things going?" He was fidgeting with his sleeve as he spoke, obviously aware of the tension in the house.

"Why, marvellously, as expected." Sirius growled, but shot Harry a wink when the boy looked at him nervously.

"Don't worry, Harry. It'll be over soon. Snape is getting better every minute."

"But still- he won't be able to leave anyway! People still think he is a murderer." Harry said, sounding more anxious yet.

"I know that. But I'm calling in favours from lots of important people and I hope to get his story reviewed very soon."

In truth, Sirius wasn't nearly as unconcerned as he made Harry believe. He was more than familiar with the ministry's and the press's priorities, and knew full well that righting wrongs wasn't exactly on top of the list.  
>On top of that, he still didn't have any idea how to break it to Snape that this time around, <em>he<em> was going to be the outlaw who needed to stay hidden in the house until his name was cleared. He had a feeling that this was going to be an enormously difficult conversation. Harry, however, was relieved. "So- will you come to dinner tonight?", he asked hopefully.

"Sorry, Harry. I don't think I will. I'm not really in the mood. I think I'll just go to bed early. I haven't slept through the night a single time since you brought Snape here. But tell Molly thanks for offering."

After his chat with Harry, Sirius immediately felt bad for letting on how much it was bothering him. But he didn't have the energy to pretend. Snape had sucked all of his energy out of him, he thought angrily, and grudgingly made his way up to the guest bedroom on the first floor, dreading to go inside. He had already stopped checking on the bandages, and now considered calling on Kreacher for the potions-administration, but discarded the thought instantly, angry at himself. Probably for the first time in his life, he could rightfully accuse himself of cowardice for avoiding to spend time in his gloomy patient's company, and that fact alone vexed him greatly. Although it probably wouldn't have to go on for much longer with Snape regaining strength every day, the potion still needed administering every four hours. In the middle of all those musings, Sirius realized, he was still lingering on the doorstep, fist raised to knock but still reluctant to do so. _This is getting ridiculous, _Sirius thought and sharply rapped his knuckles against the door. No answer. He knocked again, louder. Still no answer. His heart began to race, he threw the door open and hurried into the room. In an instant, he was at Snape's bedside- and took a deep, calming breath. Snape was asleep. Sirius shook his head, annoyed and confused. He set the goblet down on the nightstand, cast a waking spell over Snape and pensively left the room. He had felt genuinely worried for Snape for a second there. _They'd have my head if I let him die now_, he told himself, _naturally I am worried._ And he breathed out audibly, relieved that Snape had been asleep, allowing them to avoid confrontation once more.

The next evening though, having helped himself to a fair few swigs of Firewhisky after a particularly cold silence during the potion administration, Sirius squared his shoulders, knocked and entered the guest bedroom with a tray of food, instead of sending Kreacher as he usually would.

Snape was reading the book that had saved his life, but closed it when he saw Sirius standing in the door.

"Snape, I'd like a word." Sirius said, making sure to keep his voice even.

"I'm listening." Snape replied, coolly, but equally contained.

Sirius put the tray down on the nightstand and sat down in the armchair he had come to appreciate these past days. "Look, I know I'm not exactly somebody you wish to talk to about… well anything, really. But it's sort of how it is at the moment, so we'll just have to cope." He paused to give Snape the chance to say something, and continued, when he didn't.

"So, when I came home a few days ago, I take it you were about to leave?"

Snape gave him a calculating look, then nodded, once.

"I figured as much, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell you: Leaving here, as long as you're anything less than back to full strength is, mildly put, suicide."

Snape stared at him in silence.

Sirius looked away, but continued talking. "I don't just mean the physical strain of apparition, I'm guessing you know all about that. What I'm talking about is the fact that your name hasn't been cleared yet. People still think of you as Voldemort's right hand and the murderer of Dumbledore. If you should run into any wizard at all, they might very well try to kill you, and I'm not sure you're up to fighting everybody you might meet."

Snape still didn't respond, but continued to stare at Sirius deadpan.

"Anyway. I suggest you remain here until you're fully recovered, and maybe even until the public has learned about your part in the events. I realize that this arrangement is somewhat suboptimal-"

Snape gave a snort, but Sirius chose to ignore him and kept talking in a dignified voice:

"-_yet I think_, in the light of everything that has happened, we should be able to put our personal antipathies aside for now. I'm prepared to arrange for anything you need if you decide to stay, and will otherwise try to keep out of your hair as much as possible. If you do not wish to stay here, we will have to think of something. Your home, I'm sorry to say, had the distinct air of people trying to break the anti-intruder charms. I stopped by there to take a look at your books. I guess people realised that no body of yours was ever found. Hogwarts is vastly destroyed and Mrs Pomfrey is dead anyway, so I'm afraid it's not an option for you to stay there. One possibility would be for you to stay with the Weasleys. Molly is a trained nurse, and you remember, she dealt with an Irisea-victim before. I'd stop by to help prepare the potions if needed, and you wouldn't have to be around me at all. However, all the stray kids of Hogwarts are staying at the Burrow presently, so you might have a hard time getting the rest you need. Then there's always the possibility to transfer you to Saint Mungo's, but with the kind of overtime people are working there already, they might just send you to Azkaban anyway, and besides, I don't know whether you are in any fit state for an encounter with the ministry on their terms. If you'd like me to contact anybody else that you might trust with your life, let me know. However, the _Malfoys_-" he had to fight very hard to keep the hatred in his voice at minimum at this particular name, but managed to compose himself instantly. "hrm, the Malfoys have left England and quite possibly Europe. Apart from that, the Fidelius Charm sounds like a very good idea to me, so you probably should think of someone to use as secret keeper. I'll leave you alone to consider your options now."

Sirius made to get up. Since Snape had not made any attempt to speak so far, Sirius had thought he was being treated to another round of the silent treatment, but he was wrong.

"Where did you get the ingredients to the Antidote?", Snape asked in a hollow voice.

Sirius hesitated for a second, then sat back down. "I broke into your house and found your secret stack of ingredients. You forgot to put up the Anti-Detection spell. I did that before I left. Then I broke into Slughorn's mansion. Ron and Hermione raided through the potion supply cabinets at Hogwarts. The rest we bought in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley."

"There is no way you'd have found Eternal Fire or Liquid Stone in either of those places. Where did you get that?" Snape asked, with a hint of acuteness in his voice.

Sirius hesitated again. "Harry wouldn't want me to tell you."

"Be serious for once, Black, this is no matter. I need to know where one can get access to those things; they are very, very dangerous in the wrong hands. And a lot of wrong hands are unoccupied these days."

Sirius sighed. "Harry and I broke into the Committee on Experimental Potion Brewing."

Snapes eyebrows jumped up in surprise. He pulled the newspaper out from under the tray of food on his nightstand to scan the headlines.

"You wouldn't find a report on an intrusion because they didn't notice us. Which is probably why you're alive now, so don't even start with me. I put all the enchantments back into place when we left. No harm done."

Snape composed himself, but if Sirius wasn't much mistaken, for a fragment of a second, there had been an expression in his eyes similar to admiration, quickly covered by his usual cold mask.

"Right. As you were, Snape, think about what you want to do about your… situation." Sirius finished, somewhat lamely, and walked towards the door, when Snape suddenly started talking.

"Well, since neither one of my _options…"_ (Snape paused curtly after the word as if he considered taking it back) "…is strikingly desirable, I might just as well stay here. I shall need some things from home, however, so if you could just send the elf in here, I'll tell him what I need and where to find it."

Sirius nodded, left the room and, unaware of it himself, started whistling.

After their talk, Sirius started feeling easier around Snape, which was just as well, because he had more than enough to cope with during the next few days. Sirius was mostly busy searching for a house in London for Harry to move into as Harry had asked him to, as well as helping with the blueprints for the rebuilding of Hogwarts, all the while making sure Snape got his potions and had something to occupy his mind with. And although these days were rather stressful for Sirius, none of his tasks exhausted him the way they might have since at night, he could sleep long and deeply in his own bed, not worrying about anything in particular.

The fourth day, however, held a surprise for Sirius. He got up and staggered down the stairs wearing just his sweatpants as usually. Upon entering the kitchen to make breakfast, he froze: there Snape sat, fully dressed, behind the newspaper, drinking coffee he must have made himself, since Kreacher was still at Hogwarts, cleaning up rubble with the other elves.

"Morning" Sirius said, startled, and then stated: "You're up." With a yawn, he conjured up a shirt that he shrugged into because he didn't like the look Snape had cast his naked torso. _It's_ _my bloody house, I can walk around butt-naked if I so choose!_, he thought testily, but kept his annoyance to himself, once again.

Snape didn't seem to feel like honouring his greeting with an answer but merely considered him for a second, then offered Sirius a piece of the newspaper.

Sirius sat down opposite him, pointed his wand at the counter to get some eggs cooking and took the piece of newspaper Snape offered him. Sports. Sirius grinned ironically, but scanned the pages briefly (the new beater of the Falmouth Falcons, he learned, had to enter a hearing about a headinjury he had inflicted upon the Cannon's seeker). Then he got up to make tea. He actually did it the Muggle way because somehow, with all the skills he possessed in any branch of magic he had ever dabbled in, he never managed to make tea taste right if he did it magically. He thought he heard Snape scoff silently at this mugglish behaviour, but ignored it for peace's sake. They ate in silence. Sirius used Snape's preoccupation to watch him inconspicuously. Snape ate with as much appetite as he ever seemed to have, which Sirius remembered from their time at Hogwarts to be fairly little. But his fingers effortlessly held the cutlery and his breathing looked normal and pain-free. Yet- Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something in Snape's posture that made Sirius uneasy.

"So. How do you feel?" Sirius asked casually when he stood up to collect their empty plates.

"Fairly well. Wounds are healing at a suitable pace. I should be back to my old self soon."

"Don't say that.", Sirius grinned before he could stop himself, then quickly added, "My apologies, old habit. Won't happen again. Care to show me?"

Snape stared at him as though Sirius had gone mad.

"Just show me the gash under your left costal arch. If that one is all right, I'll leave you alone, I promise. Come on, take off your shirt. I'll take mine off as well if you wish?"

Sirius almost shuddered at the icy stare Snape sent his way. "Relax, I'm just joking. Look, I've been nursing you these past few days, I'd just like to see how everything turned out."

Snape glared at him, but, for some reason, didn't argue but unbuttoned his vest and then the shirt, so Sirius could see his chest. It still didn't look good. The gash Sirius had mentioned especially looked painful and, if Sirius wasn't much mistaken, infected. He leaned forward and raised one hand to touch it when Snape drew back and stood up.

"That will do." He said, and started buttoning up his shirt again.

"Don't be ridiculous, this looks infected!" Sirius rose to his feet as well and made a gesture as if wanting to grab Snape, who immediately pulled his wand.

"Listen, Snape, I'm not going to attack you, but this is really dangerous, what are you getting at? Are you trying to end up dead? I'm not going to Azkaban for that, let me treat the infection now." He took a step towards Snape, who stepped back and retorted bitterly:

"You're golden boy now, remember? They'll probably congratulate you for offing the spy."

Sirius let out an exasperated sigh. "Listen, I know how you feel, I've been in the exact same situation. Except, you have an alley here. I'm already working to get your name cleared, but it's a slow process, you can imagine how the Ministry is like at the moment. The wizarding press is a mess as well, hell, I even tried to get your story on the Quibbler, but they shut up shop, as has the Radio. The war is over, but still everything is in ashes."

Snape stared at him, but the daggers were gone from his gaze now.

"Now. Will you let me treat those wounds or not.", said Sirius in a rather soft voice.

Snape shrugged and left the kitchen, which Sirius took as an invitation to follow him. There was an awkward moment in Snape's bedroom when Sirius had to explain to him he had to take off his shirt and lie down for him to be able to perform the necessary healing methods, and another, even more awkward moment, when Sirius told him to pull down his pants a little, because one of the tears was a little below the belt. But Snape seemed to have decided to be cooperative and did as he was told without making things any harder or even sneering. Sirius had to open one of the wounds where the flesh hadn't settled correctly, and reassemble it. Snape, although unable to feel any pain over Sirius's numbing spell, looked as though he was about to be sick and closed his eyes. Sirius bit his lip, and tried to be as gentle as possible, but Snape flinched several times under is hands anyway. The infected wound had to be drained and cleaned, again causing Snape to look away in disgust. But soon enough, Sirius was finished. Snape made to sit up, but Sirius asked him, in a voice he hardly recognized it was so careful, to stay in bed for a few hours until the pain stilling charm had worn off, and see if he felt up to walking around then. And, to his amazement, Snape didn't argue. _He must not be feeling well at all yet, _thought Sirius.

"You know, it might be easier to just tell me you don't want me in the rest of the house.", Snape muttered sarcastically as he sat back with his book and Sirius laughed throatily while He walked upstairs to his bathroom to get ready for the day. It almost felt like being back at Hogwarts, before the nastiness had begun. Sirius summoned Kreacher to stay at the house with Snape, then disapparated to help with the rebuilding at Hogwarts.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Sirius returned home in the evening, he almost stumbled over Harry, who sat on the bottom Step of the big stairway, apparently waiting for him. "You left him alone?", Harry asked by way of a greeting, failing entirely to keep the accusation out of his voice.

"He's fine. He has even been able to get up today. Besides, Kreacher was with him."

"Remember when you were last here, with no one to talk to you but Kreacher?"

"Easy, now. I'm here in the evenings. Besides, I bet Snape prefers Kreacher's company to mine anyway. I've found you a house, by the way. You'll love it, It's so wizardy it boarders on a joke. We can go see it right now if you want to. Or, maybe tomorrow. Whatever." Sirius chuckled at Harry's reproachful glance and made his way upstairs to check on Snape.

He was bade inside after the first knock.

"Hey, Snape, Harry is pissed that I left you alone. But you were sleeping, so I thought-"

"I am in no way in need of being supervised and would appreciate it if you could make Potter understand that." Snape replied in his usual sarcastic snarl.

"Fine. Just wondering. Anyway, this is going to annoy you greatly, but I'd feel a lot better if I could check on your…"

Snape had already guessed where Sirius was going and with a sigh, he set aside his book and unbuttoned his pyjama top. Sirius sat down on the bed, carefully touched the wound he had reassembled before and took a look at the infected one, as well. "You might want to look away now- I think I need to drain this one again." Sirius said to Snape without looking up, and conjured fresh instruments. Snape let his head sink back into the pillow, while Sirius drained the wound quickly.

"Maybe I'll apply for Madame Pomfrey's job after this." He murmured while slapping on fresh bandages. Snape grimaced weakly, apparently still disgusted.

"Done. You need anything? Books? Drink? Dinner?"

"Your Houseelf has seen to that. I'll be fine."

"Right. You get well then. I could use your help rebuilding Hogwarts, if you're up to it."

"I bet you could" Snape murmured, and, as usually, Sirius wouldn't react to the bait, although sometimes, the urge to snap back, just a little, was almost painfully strong.

Since Snape continuously got better everyday, they soon started a routine in the evenings, where they would both sit in the huge sitting room by the fire, each working silently, hunched over blueprints, theoretical spell-books and the sort while drinking a few glasses of Madame Rosmerta's finest Oak Mead. As long as they kept the subject strictly professional, they could even talk without annoying each other, and sometimes, they would chat animatedly about reconstruction strategies until late into the night.

One night though, when they had gone through several blueprints and almost half a bottle of Fire whisky on top of the usual mead, Sirius addressed a different topic.

"Anyway, Snape, I wanted to ask you something: the Weasleys and some of the Hogwarts staff are meeting on Saturday to discuss the fundraising for the Hogwarts rebuild. Do you feel up for that?"

Snape threw him a calculating glance and instead of answering calmly as usual, this time he snapped: "Does it make a difference? I'm guessing I'll be here anyway."

Sirius looked at him in bewilderment, then answered: "I said we'd meet, not where. If you don't feel like seeing anybody, we'll just do it at the Weasley's, or at Harry's new place. It's your call."

"My call? I believe if this was my call, I would be the one with the options." Snape stood up and started pacing.

"I understand how you feel, but since I'm doing everything I can and it's sort of out of my hands, you might as well stop lashing out at me and tell me what you'd prefer about Saturday."

"I'd prefer to be in a house by the beach, writing my memoirs."

Sirius quickly rose to his feet as well, but then stopped and willed his temper to cool. It worked a little. So he said, somewhat calmly:

"Listen, I get it, you're mad. But I told you. I really am doing everything I can without actually resorting to hexing people."

"Since when do you refrain from hexing people?" A sarcastic little smile curled Snape's lips upwards, and there was a vicious sparkle in his eyes.

Sirius thought he knew what this was about- he had been through all of this as well, after all. So he managed to state, very calmly: "Snape. I won't fight you."

"Why not? You never cared about that before."

"Because it's different now. I don't hate you. You're not who I thought you were."

"Is that so. Well, I'm sorry to say it, but neither are you. I used to think you were an arrogant, pompous blowhard with no regard for others whatsoever. But now I've come to realise: you're but a pathetic little lapdog, begging for the attention of the great Chosen One and his posse. You know- I don't even think you were honest with me. I think the real reason why you won't fight me is that your little gang isn't there to have your back anymore. No Wormtail, no Prongs, no Moony."

"You shut up right now or I swear to god-" Sirius forced out between clenched teeth.

"Oh, right. They're dead now, aren't they? They're all… gone." Snape whispered in his most silky voice.

And then, finally, Sirius snapped.

"You want things to go back to the way they were? well I can help you with that." And without even bothering to reach for his wand, he just drew back his fist and thrust it into Snape's face. Snape stumbled back, caught between pain and surprise, but quickly snapped out of it and then he, too, threw himself at his opponent without even thinking of using magic. And then Sirius had Snape in headlock.

"See what good it does you." He panted. Snape couldn't move, he screamed in frustration, tore at Sirius's grip and finally spat, defeated:

"What do you want from me, Black? All those years, you've constantly been on my back, every single day. Now all of a sudden, you're all puppy eyes and wagging tails. I don't care what caused you to finally lose it, but I advise you to recover it immediately, because I won't have it!"

"But there's nothing you can do now, is there… Snivellus?" Sirius hissed back.

Hearing the old nickname apparently sent Snape over the edge. With a roar, he threw Sirius off, turned around and pulled his wand out in one fluid motion. He pointed it at Sirius, directly at the space between the dark eyes that were flashing dangerously.

"Go ahead… do it. Then we're even. Do it!" Sirius snarled.

"Oh no," retorted Snape in a cold voice, "That won't make us even. I will have vanquished you."

"So what are you waiting for? The moment is finally here."

"And here you are again, proving what an incredibly simple creature you are, _dog_. You see, killing you now wouldn't even satisfy me." Snape said, icicles dropping from his voice. "I want to see you feel the way I felt. Suffer what I suffered..."

"What did you suffer then, Snape? Loneliness? I know a thing or two about that, twelve years of Azkaban will teach you that, if nothing else. I've been all alone for the better part of my adult life- just like you. We're both love's bitches, or rather, bitches of the ones we loved."

"Oh yes? And who is it that rejected you? I can probably guess, because the list of people you haven't been shagging during your prime at Hogwarts fits on a beetle eye." Snape snarled, wand still pointing at Sirius's forehead.

"Mind your own business, will you. I'm sick of this morbid game. Are you going to kill me any time soon, or do I have to wait for boredom to carry me off?"

Snape glared at him, the little crease above his nose deep with thought. Then, finally, he lowered his wand.

Without being able to explain why, Sirius felt disappointed. "Coward.", he growled, and within a split second, Snape pointed the wand at him again and, in a deadly voice, spat: "No one calls me a coward. Not after all I've done for all of you worthless load of scum!" He sent his wand down in a slashing move, the room was brightly lit for a moment, then Sirius' lifeless body sank to the ground.

* * *

><p>So thanks again for bearing with me, I know this is not a very strong chapter but you know, it wasn't getting any better than that.<br>If you have a minute to spare, write a review to help me keep myself motivated, I'm at a bit of a low point right now.


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